DEEPDALE SHOPPING PARK

Today is another day full of colours. Colour is a vital part on preparing presentation drawing. Despite the vast information about colouring techniques that we could easily find in the Internet; from the most basic primary colour to the complex colour information and the psychology of colour used; but which of these many techniques is our own unique colouring? A technique that distinguishes one from the rest; just like the unique hand-drawn sketches and the old marker colour technique which clearly point the sketches to its painters. This uniqueness is the one that sets us apart from other profession, our architectural sense of colour.

"Artists can color the sky red because they know it's blue. Those of us who aren't artists must color things the way they really are or people might think we're stupid." Jules FeifferUS cartoonist & satirist (1929 - )

I once had an architect friend who is colour blind!! This weakness however did not prevent him from doing architecture. He has his own unique understanding of colour. This blind-colour-man could thrive thru the difficulties in making visual for non-colour blind people. How about those who are not colour blind? Do we appreciate the colours that we see everyday?

"An optimist is a person who sees a green light everywhere, while a pessimist sees only the red stoplight. . . The truly wise person is colorblind." Albert SchweitzerFrench philosopher & physician (1875 - 1965)

I do realise how precious the eyes that god had given us. I could not imagine how to live in blindness. I can consider myself half blind, since I could only see things clearly with high power spectacles. I could not survive without these glasses. I can only see things within 3 inches from my eyes! Every time I take off my spectacles, the world quickly changes into half blindness to me. It scared me sometimes to think if someday God the Almight withdraws the gifts that he had given. Leonardo da Vinci once said “The eye sees a thing more clearly in dreams than the imagination awake”, but could we still be an architect if we are all blind?


1. The master plan - The exercise is to differentiate the existing development with the current ones. Therefore by focussing the detail colouring to the current development area it will guide the viewer towards it. Using relatively strong colour from the rest of the master plan also help getting the right focus.

2. The detail proposed development is set by enlarging the previous colouring exercise. Even though this is the fastest process to get the selected area to be coloured, it would reveal the non-detail and not sharp colouring result. The material scale also needs to be adjusted.

3. This first draft re-colouring process is finer. It uses a new drawing reference at the same scale thus increases the detail of the drawing.

4. This final colour is revised based on the landscape consultant's information. The consultant information will enhance the detail of the presentation. However the style of the presentation should be consistent. In the end it will create an informative presentation drawing with its own character.

Visit : http://www.rgp.uk.com/ RGP have an innovative approach to architectural design. We have no dogma, no standard answers and we are spirited and fun to work with